Business Travel Tips

A study commissioned by business travel group National Business Travel Association shows that travelers not only pay a local sales tax, but they also spend up to 172% more in taxes aimed at visitors each day they stay at a hotel, dine and rent a car, USA TODAY reports.

The newspaper says that the study looked at taxes at the 50 U.S. airports with the most passengers. It reveals that Chicago’s O’Hare is the most expensive airport in terms of taxes travelers must pay.

The study shows that at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, a typical traveler pays $40.99 a day in taxes; it is made up of $26.14 in sales tax, plus $14.85 in taxes aimed at travelers.
To calculate how much tax a traveler pays daily, the study assumed the following average industry rates: a hotel room rate of $95.61, a $73.66 rental car rate and $85.80 for three meals.

USA TODAY has published a table — source: National Business Travel Association — displaying how much a typical traveler may pay daily in taxes at airports, including sales tax and taxes that target visitors. Taxes include hotel, rental car and meal taxes.

Highest taxes
Chicago O’Hare $40.99
San Antonio $37.20
Houston Bush $36.83
Kansas City $36.79
Phoenix $35.97
Lowest taxes
Portland, Ore. $21.49
Washington Reagan $21.76
Detroit $21.89
Honolulu $21.95
Fort Lauderdale $22.08
(Source: National Business Travel Association via USA TODAY)

Southwest Airlines announced it is planning to begin fleetwide rollout of its wi-fi service in the first quarter of 2010.
In a press release the carrier says:

Southwest Airlines and Row 44 are continuing plans to roll out wi-fi beginning in the first quarter of 2010. Beginning this fall, Southwest will be moving to the next step of certifying Southwest’s full fleet with plans to begin fleetwide rollout of the Row 44 satellite service in the first quarter of 2010.

The airline has been testing the service on four aircraft since Feb. 2009 and has received fantastic Customer feedback on the product.

“We have concluded our testing for inflight wi-fi and are very happy with both the technical performance of the system and the response of Customers who have used it,” said Dave Ridley, Southwest Airlines Senior Vice President of Marketing and Revenue Management. “We are pleased to be continuing with our plans to offer satellite-enabled broadband access through California-based Row 44.”

During the testing phase, Customers have been utilizing the service for anything from e-mail to streaming video.

(source)

The second phase of Secure Flight program rolled out last August 15.
About Secure Flight program the website of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says:

“Secure Flight is a behind the scenes program that streamlines the watch list matching process. It will improve the travel experience for all passengers, including those who have been misidentified in the past.

What information will be collected by Secure Flight? When fully implemented, Secure Flight will require all airlines to provide a passenger’s name as it appears on the government issued ID they plan to travel with, date of birth, gender, and redress number (if applicable).”

If you may or may not be asked for your birth date and gender and similar questions about Secure Flight were answered by Secure Flight Office.
The TSA’s blog published the answers given by Secure Flight Office to the most common questions coming up among travelers.

American Express Business Travel yesterday unveiled virtual meetings eXpert, an innovative solution in the field of telepresence.

eXpert will act as a central hub and aggregator of both public telepresence facilities and the private network a company may already have in place. The combination of public-private access offers a company access to a broader pool of virtual meeting options. Virtual meetings eXpert will help clients achieve their individual travel goals and savings through a flexible platform available both online and offline.

The Company also announced it has filed for patent protection of the solution, encompassing the design for aggregating the content as well as methodology and process which will help guide travelers in making informed decisions when weighing the choice to travel versus using telepresence services or virtual meetings technology. This service will be integrated at the point-of-sale with both travel counselor assisted reservations or online booking channels, including the Company’s global eXplore portal, meetings solutions, and other key platforms.

Based on criteria such as the price, duration of the trip, purpose, environmental impact and more, the solution will alert travelers at the time of booking on available telepresence and high-end virtual meeting options, and guides them through scenarios that determine if it makes sense to take the trip virtually. Furthermore, the solution can also be utilized in helping companies convert conference calls and Webexes to a virtual meeting.

Virtual meetings eXpert provides an efficient booking process of the available facility when it’s the right decision. Not only can this drive key savings, but ultimately enhances productivity and employee satisfaction, by boosting collaboration that otherwise may not have been able to occur. [...] Through the solution, larger companies that have already invested in their own telepresence facilities will now be able to extend their private network to include public facilities, further maximizing their return on investment by encouraging a higher utilization of their internal rooms.

As additional telepresence facilities become available, smaller companies can also benefit from visibility into the availability of public virtual meetings facilities. (source)

In the effort to lower business travel costs, many companies are establishing in-house travel agencies, USA TODAY reports. The newspaper says 129 companies — Wal-Mart Stores is one of them — and organizations such as universities have established fully accredited in-house travel agencies to better manage their business travel and reduce costs.

That lets them buy airline tickets and arrange hotel rooms and rental cars just as a regular travel agency does; also they collect commissions on bookings, and in many cases, avoid paying booking or transaction fees to an outside travel agency.

USA TODAY quoted Belinda Borden, manager of the University of California Travel Centre, as saying “It’s been incredibly good for us, in terms of cost-saving. Since we’ve become (a travel agency), we’ve never cost the university a penny. We’re totally self-supporting.”

- Same as a retail agency
The key for a business becoming its own travel agent is to get accredited by the Airlines Reporting Corp. as a corporate travel department and get an ID number to account for transactions. Any organization, large or small, can do this, Mike Premo, a vice president at Airlines Reporting Corp., says.

An accredited corporate travel department can perform all the same functions as the nearly 20,000 traditional retail travel agencies — though it’s prohibited from selling travel to anyone outside the organization. Premo describes a retail travel agency as a seller of travel, while a corporate travel department is a buyer of travel.
“The basic idea is that the corporation can get the same sort of travel agency identification number and authority to process ticket sales through the airline reservation systems and through our settlement system,” he says. The cost is small: a $2,000 application fee and $160 to renew annually.

Andy Menkes, who was global travel manager at Republic National Bank, the first corporation to become its own travel agent in 1998, says the concept was simple: “I’d rather pay a fee and collect all the commissions myself as a corporation.”

Menkes now is CEO of Partnership Travel Consulting, which provides advice to companies on how to become their own agents.
With interest on the rise, 30 organizations have joined the recently formed Corporate Travel Department Association, according to the group’s chairwoman, Kathy Hall-Zientek, who manages travel services at Moog. Among its members: Macy’s and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in addition to Wal-Mart and the University of California. (source: USA TODAY)